Future of Blogging – Need All Be Politically Correct Before Being Blogged ?

Since Google is continuously getting content filtration and removal requests from around the world, the company has decided to comply with local laws , similar to Twitter. Even in India the Lower Court has asked major websites like google, twitter and facebook to remove ‘objectionable contents’ else may face bans in the country!

Now anyone accessing blogger.com is redirected to the country’s Country Code Top Level Domain. That means if Blogger.com is accessed from India it would now be redirected to blogspot.in ; ‘.in’ being the Country – Code Top Level Domain for India .

This way Google will be able to comply with valid removal requests pursuant to local laws of different countries. However, the content removed in a country due to its law would be available in other countries where the content is not an issue. This applies to the contents of bloggers who are availing blogger.com services, under the blogger.com subdomain(e.g.-mysay.blogspot.com) only. Does it mean bloggers who own their domains and are powered by blogger.com, may be directly answerable for any contents violating their country’s law ?

Now that Google – ‘ ‘The Internet God’, has taken this decision, soon others will follow including WordPress and other similar service providers.

What puzzles is thinking about the bigger picture which might appear in the coming future : Will the bloggers be getting specific guidelines, by their respective countries as to what topics they can and cannot express their views on and guidelines on how should their expressions be portrayed in words, photographs and sketches? What comes under the parameter of ‘Objectionable Content’ ?

But the question is ‘Who decides, what content is offending for whom ?’ For instance , if a country is going through recession and a blogger feels it is the present government which is responsible and has his own valid points to express, would he not be allowed to blog as his writings may spread unrest and thereby offend the Government of the country ?

If this is what filtration of contents mean then why not other sources of information and communication be included too? Television and Print Media are mostly run by corporates and they can be put under pressure by Governments of countries and influential corporates and businessmen , if need be. Whereas, the Internet is the only source of communication and information where everyone is free to express about any matter , the way he/she feels about it. Is this unrest from several Governments, all over the world, not against the ‘Freedom Of Thought And Speech’ of the common citizens of their countries ?